Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex might expect to live if the age-specific death rates of the given period continued throughout his/her lifetime.

A Tasmanian male born in 2003 (based on the 2001-2003 age specific death experience) could expect to live 76.6 years and a female could expect to live 81.4 years. By comparison, in 1903 (based on the 1901-1910 age specific death experience), life expectancy at birth was 57.8 years for Tasmanian males and 59.9 years for Tasmanian females.

The graph below shows that there has been a trend of increasing life expectancy for Tasmanian and Australian males and females between 1993 and 2003.

LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH - 1993-2003

Recent reductions in the death rates at the older ages, especially from diseases of the circulatory system, have led to improvements in life expectancy of adults. In 1903, life expectancy for Australian males aged 65 years was 11.3 years, compared with 16.7 years for Tasmanian males in 2003. For Australian females aged 65 years, life expectancy in 1903 was 12.9 years, compared with 20.0 years for Tasmanian females in 2003.